The mass adoption of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) — often called automated, self-driving, or driverless vehicles — could radically change the way we travel and have a significant influence on the evolution of the urban and non-urban landscape. Without the need for human supervision or operation, every person will be a passenger, and cars will be able to drive with no occupants at all. This will give drivers more leisure time, widen mobility to citizens currently unable to drive, and improve road safety.

Transformational transport infrastructure projects are under way across Europe to meet our increasing demand for travel and city aspirations for greater connectivity. How do you create a step change in passenger experience, connectivity, neighbourhood benefit and operational resilience without damaging the current transport network and experience?

From the major redevelopment of London Bridge Station to the redevelopment of Vienna Hauptbahnhof, the creation of new capacity, enhanced experience and visually appealing transport infrastructure comes at a price and with risks.

We spoke to Kunal Kumar, Municipal Commissioner for Pune, India, about the city’s ambitions to become a smart city.

Pune is a major Indian city, the second largest in the western state of Maharashtra. It is a wonderful example of the vibrancy, excitement and ancient culture for which India’s cities are famous, but it suffers from all the social problems that come with the energy and colour, too.

The European Commission, through its Alternative Fuels Directive 2014/94/EU, is seeking to promote the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure to enable an increase in the uptake of alternative fuels vehicles and reduce Europe’s dependence on oil and oil related products.

Sharon Daly our UK Managing Director has been featured in the latest issue of Local Transport Today. Steer Davies Gleave appointed Sharon as its first UK managing director last summer (read more here). In an interview for Local Transport Today she tells Andrew Forster why the new role was necessary and explains SDG’s areas of UK activity.

India’s railway network is one of the largest in the world comprising 92,081 km of track and 7,216 stations, carrying 22 million passengers a day and 1.1 billion tons of freight annually¹. Due to its prominent role in the infrastructure landscape of the country there have been many Government-led initiatives to invest in the network and station infrastructure.

Many of us use rail stations daily, but how often do we stop to consider their role beyond their basic function of going from one point to another?

Whether large or small, they play an important role in the social lives of our cities. They can be meeting places, places to shop (and increasingly to collect online purchases), places to eat and drink and even places for temporary events. In fact, as libraries and town halls are so rarely built these days, stations and interchanges have become one of the last remaining opportunities for civic place-making.

Currently EVs account for around 0.2% of vehicles on UK roads , but their use is set to grow to around 1.6 million vehicles or 5% of licensed vehicles by 2020 . This is motivated by the fact that buying them is promoted through a favourable vehicle tax regime and government grants and planners are promoting the installation of infrastructure to support EVs in city centres. In response to the need to reduce carbon emission from transport, since 2001 the UK government has set vehicle tax rates based on CO2 emissions.